


The Power of Love

by TigerLily



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 12:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLily/pseuds/TigerLily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reworking of the ending events of IM3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Power of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kaige68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/gifts).



Phil sat in ICU with Tony’s hand wrapped firmly in his waiting for his lover to wake up. He felt a small hand give his shoulder a gentle yet firm squeeze and he looked up to find Natasha standing next to him. “Yes?”

“I’ll stay with him while you get something to eat and freshen up,” she softly offered.

“I’m good.”

“When was the last time you ate, Phil?”

Phil thought back and couldn’t remember when he had last been outside this small, slightly antiseptic smelling room with its tubes and wires keeping his lover alive. “I can’t remember,” he admitted. “But, I need to be here when he wakes up.”

“You will be,” Natasha reassured him. “But, you aren’t going to do him any good if you pass out from hunger.”

“I’m really not hungry, Natasha,” Phil remarked ignoring the soft growling of his stomach. Tony needed him to be here when he woke to keep the inevitable flashbacks at bay, so that he wouldn’t further hurt himself.

“Liar.”

“You aren’t going to leave me alone about this, are you?”

“No.”

“Alright,” Phil huffed exasperated.

“Don’t you huff at me, Philip John Coulson!”

Phil shot Natasha a dirty look, but let go of Tony’s hand and slowly stood up. “This is not over,” he vowed.

“We’ll table it for a later date and time,” she suggested with a rare smile.

Phil nodded in agreement and left the room.

Natasha settled into the chair and caught hold of Tony’s hand. “This stunt had better be worth it, Tony. I don’t think Phil has it in him to keep going if anything happens to you,” she murmured.

*&*

Phil walked into the hallway only to find Nick Fury waiting for him. “You don’t play fair,” he grumbled.

“She used the middle name, didn’t she?”

“Yes!” Phil snapped and swayed before catching hold of the wall to keep from falling flat on his face.

“Be glad I sent Natasha in,” Nick said as he reached out a hand to steady Phil. “I was half tempted to call Rogers and see if he could talk some sense into your hard head.”

“You would, wouldn’t you?”

“You just got out of Medical, Phil,” Nick reasoned as he lead his friend toward a row of chairs and helped him into one. “You can’t let Stark’s fool ass stunt put you back there.”

“I know,” Phil sighed and leaned back in the chair. “It’s just that we finally got our shit together and I don’t want to screw up again.”

Nick winced when he heard “screw up” and knew that it was aimed at him, but it was a call he would make again if it meant saving the world. “Then we’d better get you cleaned up and fed before Natasha decides shaking Stark awake is a good thing.”

“That’s not making me feel any better,” Phil pointed out.

“It’s the truth,” Nick observed. “It’s not meant to make you feel better.”

“You mentioned food.”

Nick snapped his fingers and a junior agent appeared out of nowhere carrying a large brown bag from Phil’s favorite restaurant. The agent handed him the bag and disappeared while he handed the bag to Phil. “It’s not a home cooked meal, but it beats hospital food.”

“Even your attempts at cooking beat hospital food,” Phil retorted as he peered inside of the bag. “Nice to know you haven’t forgot what I like to eat when I’m stressed out.”

“You’re not as unpredictable as you make yourself out to be,” Nick reminded Phil of their long term friendship.

“With friends like you, I don’t need enemies.”

“Always a charmer, Phil, always a charmer.”

Phil shrugged before pulling an egg roll out of the bag and biting into it.

*&*

Tony fought his way toward consciousness despite the amount of painkillers being pumped into his body. He had a pressing need and that was to see his lover’s face.

_Phil._

He had just gotten the man back and he would be damned if Killian and his flunkies took him away from Phil.

He cracked his eyes open and croaked out, “Phil?”

The hand holding his gave it a gentle squeeze and he knew instinctively it wasn’t Phil’s. It was too soft and slender to be his lover’s hand.

“Tasha?” he hazard a guess.

“Yes,” Natasha answered pitching her voice to be heard above the machines attached to him, but not so loud to be irritating. “Phil just stepped out to freshen up and get something to eat.”

“Good,” Tony firmly said. “He doesn’t need to be sitting in here worrying about me and wasting away to nothing.”

Natasha nodded. Phil’s well-being was something they both agreed on.

Tony opened his mouth to say more, but started coughing because his throat was so dry.

Natasha picked up a cup of ice chips and placed one on Tony’s chapped lips once his coughing fit had subsided.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said and fed him another chip. “Don’t try to talk. The doctor will be in to check on you and maybe he’ll remove the oxygen line and a few of these monitors.”

“That would be awesome.” Tony loathed being laid up and had avoided hospitals like the plague since coming back from Afghanistan.

Natasha gave him a tiny smile knowing that Tony was well on the road to recovery.

*&*

Phil entered the room to find Tony sitting up and fooling with the tablet he knew Natasha had stashed in her satchel. He had to smile at the look of total concentration on his lover’s face.

“Trying to beat my record at Tetris, Tony?” he asked walking up behind Natasha.

“Nothing so mundane, Phil,” Tony replied not bothering to look up from the tablet. “I’m trying to get Jarvis back up and running.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard since you have him installed on several servers across the country,” Phil remarked revealing how deep Tony’s paranoia was when it came to his greatest creation.

“Now, you know all my secrets,” Tony quipped finally looking up and grinning. He would have been out of the bed and embracing Phil in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for the fact that he was still lightheaded from all the drugs still being pumped into him.

“Oh no,” Phil was quick to disagree. “I’m still learning new things about you.”

Tony gave his head a tiny shake. “I’m dating a sappy romantic.”

“Who can kill you with a paperclip,” Natasha contributed getting up and trading places with Phil.

“Good point,” Tony agreed. He set the tablet aside and caught hold of Phil’s hand. “So when do I get sprung from here?”

“Getting tired of your accommodations?”

“A little bit.”

“Tough.”

“Aww...don’t be that way, snookums.”

“Tony,” Phil sighed in mild exasperation instead of biting off Tony’s head. That was an argument for another day.

Tony thought about pushing to get released, but the firm grip of Phil’s hand on his made him pause. “I’ll be good or at least I’ll try to be.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

“Anyone care to fill me in on what I’ve missed?” Tony asked deftly changing the subject. Jarvis had informed him via the tablet that he had been unconscious for at least a week since Killian and his super, fire breathing soldier had used him as a punching bag before they had been completely stopped for good by Jarvis, Pepper and the suits.

“I’m not certain you would like what we have to tell you,” Natasha quietly began. She had seen the look of alarm that had crossed Tony’s face when he had learned how long he had been unconscious.

“Can’t be any worse than letting Killian turn my best friend into a walking, talking fire bomb,” Tony wryly retorted downplaying his alarm. He knew Pepper was going to kill him for that, even though it made her more badass than before.

“Pepper is fine,” Natasha assured Tony. “Bruce was able to come up with something to stabilize the Extremis.”

“That’s my science bro.”

“You’ll have to rebuild the Malibu mansion.”

Tony twisted his mouth into a moue of distaste. “I did that once. I don’t have it in me to do it again. Please tell me somebody rescue the bots?”

“Yes,” Phil answered taking up the tale from Natasha. “They are safe and sound in the Tower. Steve and Clint keep them busy.”

“Doing what?”

“Playing catch.”

Tony heaved a dramatic sigh, but couldn’t find it in himself to be bothered that his “kids” were getting to be kids for awhile. It was better than what he had experienced as a child.

“Oh, don’t sound so put upon,” Natasha snarked at him.

Tony stuck his tongue out at her causing Phil to roll his eyes. “And, I’m dating a child,” he grumbled.

“A wunderkind, Phil,” Tony retorted with a grin. “A wunderkind.”

Natasha shook her head in wry bemusement. Tony always managed to amuse her even when she was furious with him, and she was furious with him for going after Killian like he had. “I’m going to leave you two to get reacquainted while I go bury Nick under a mountain of paperwork,” she said as she turned to leave.

“Thank you for everything, Tasha,” Tony said in honest gratitude biting back on the pithy quip that had sprung to mind at her mention of burying Nick in paperwork. He had pushed his luck enough for one day.

“You’re welcome, Tony,” she answered and then left.

“What was that about?” Phil asked as he made himself at home in the narrow bed facing Tony.

“For her taking care of you when I couldn’t,” Tony answered. He reached out and gently caressed Phil’s face quietly ecstatic that he could do so again.

“She did have help.” Phil leaned into Tony’s touch biting back a soft moan of pleasure as he did so. Tony wasn’t the only one who had missed their intimate touches.

“Yeah, good old Nick,” Tony bitterly quipped. He still bore the man a grudge for what he had put him, the Avengers and Phil through during and after the Battle of Manhattan. “But, it’ll be a cold day in hell before we ever see eye-to-eye.”

“Tony,” Phil sighed. It still bothered him that his lover didn’t trust his old friend and vice versa.

“Phil,” Tony countered not wanting to start an argument, but he would defend himself.

Phil smiled and gently shook his head. “I’m pissed at you, but I still love you,” he calmly explained. Tony was the most exasperating man he had ever known, but he loved him anyway.

“I know and I love you, too,” Tony replied with a small smile knowing in the coming days Phil would lecture him on his stupidity and he would gladly accept it because it meant Phil was still apart of his life.

Phil returned Tony’s smile before leaning in and capturing the genius’ mouth in a soft kiss.


End file.
